WASHINGTON — Eight years after he was sent to China by a Democratic president, Jon M. Huntsman Jr., the former Utah governor and Republican presidential candidate, is under consideration to be President Trump’s ambassador to Russia, people briefed on the deliberations said.

And like eight years ago, there is a political dimension to the choice: Sending Mr. Huntsman to Moscow would remove him as a primary challenger to Utah’s 82-year-old Republican senator, Orrin Hatch — just as whe